CCBL Playoffs: Andriese shuts down Y-D

SOUTH YARMOUTH — Late Tuesday night, hours after his team had dispatched Wareham to advance to the Cape Cod Baseball League championship series with Yarmouth-Dennis, Cotuit manager Mike Roberts received a text message from Kettleers pitcher Matt Andriese.

SOUTH YARMOUTH — Late Tuesday night, hours after his team had dispatched Wareham to advance to the Cape Cod Baseball League championship series with Yarmouth-Dennis, Cotuit manager Mike Roberts received a text message from Kettleers pitcher Matt Andriese.

"Coach," the text read, "I want to pitch tomorrow."

Two hours before game time, Roberts decided to go with his proactive right-hander, who'd been a reliever for much of the season, and the move paid off.

Andriese pitched a three-hit shutout to lead Cotuit to a 3-0 Game 1 victory and stopped the red-hot Y-D offense dead in its tracks.

"You never know, as a coach, whether you're making the right decision or the wrong decision," Roberts said. "They have six left-handed hitters in their lineup but he was about as focused as I've seen a young man on the mound in a while."

The UC-Riverside product was firing on all cylinders from the start. He had a no-hitter broken up with two-outs in the fifth and retired 18 of 20 batters to start the game.

"I just hope he enjoyed pitching as much as the coaching staff enjoyed watching him pitch," Roberts said.

But the question throughout was: Would Andriese keep it up? The longest he had pitched all season was seven innings, back on June 23, and he hadn't pitched more than five in a single appearance since. He had also thrown 30 pitches in an inning of relief just two days earlier.

"The last three innings I was running on pure adrenaline," Andriese admitted.

He kept the high-powered Red Sox offense — the same Y-D hitters that tallied 49 runs in four playoff games and 36 in the last two alone — in check with a steady diet of two-seamed, sinking fastballs.

When Y-D's big boppers came to the plate, Andriese brought his best stuff.

He struck out Cape League All-Star game co-MVP, Caleb Ramsey (Houston) once and Jordan Ribera (Fresno State) — the Cape's home run king — twice.

"We just didn't make good adjustments," said Y-D manager Scott Pickler. "You've got to give (Andriese) credit. I thought he threw really well and hit spots all day. ... We've got to make a better approach with a pitcher like that."

Throughout the year, Andriese couldn't have been more inconspicuous. He was shuttled back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen during the regular season and Roberts continually mispronounced his name. The coach called him Andreesee, when in fact it is pronounced Andrees.

"He laughed a few days ago when I finally said Andrees," Roberts said. "I saw him sort of roll his eyes and (think), 'Oh, he finally got it right.' "

Near the end of Roberts post-game talk with his team yesterday he jokingly mispronounced Andriese's name once again.

With his stamp on a Cape League championship series now, not too many will probably make that mistake again.

Red Sox starter Randy Fontanez (South Florida), was a worthy adversary, though, tossing eight innings and allowing just two earned runs. The right-hander just didn't have enough support on a day when Andriese was dealing.

Jordan Leyland (UC-Irvine) and Chad Wright (Kentucky) led off the first with singles. Both scored, one on a bunt base hit by Deven Marrero (Arizona State) and a fielders choice. In the third, Marrero added another RBI-single.

"We can't hit with Y-D," Roberts said. "We are not a slugging team, we are a small-ball team. We've got to play our style of play."

Throughout the Cape League playoffs, there has been only one series that has gone three games. The first game was crucial for either team and, with Andriese' performance, Cotuit couldn't have had a better start.

"It's huge coming out here and beating them at their place," Andriese said.

"(We) come back with our ace tomorrow, in Austin Wood, in front of our home crowd, its going to be great."